An Introvert With An Extrovert Button!

NaNoWriMo 2018 Reflection

It was a crazy November this year. This NaNoWriMo was probably my most productive ever. Yes, I did hit the 50,000 word goal, but that’s not really a challenge for me. Today I’m going to reflect on the goals I set for myself in November, how they evolved, and what comes next.

I had three real goals for this year: complete the next draft of Missing Auggie, write the detailed outline of Woodhouse Yarn & Cafe, and successfully write a sex scene. Last week I spoke about the weirdness around writing a sex scene. In the end I managed to complete two and a half scenes. The half scene might get finished, but I realized it might not be necessary for the story, so I want to get feedback on the other people on the other two.

The big goal was to finish the second draft of Missing Auggie. My decision to make that the book released in 2019 was surprisingly not difficult. I actually planned that two years ago, but changed my mind when I struggled with the story re-writes. I remember sitting in Panera, avoiding Cedric’s unreasonable amount of puppy energy, getting lost in details of the flash back and giving it too much attention. I put it aside when I came up with a new idea for New Devil. The problem is that New Devil never had a good story for me to work with and it still needs more work. What I realized, in October really, was that I knew how to move forward on Missing Auggie.

So, where does Missing Auggie stand? It’s in a really good place, but still needs some work. There is a bit more research I need to do. I realized, at the very end, that I could consider a narrative about media obsession with true crime. I have to do a bit of research on how 24-hour-news covers missing people and crime. I did consider maybe a narrative about a podcast covering my missing husband search. I’m not sure yet, but I’m excited to research. I’m putting it away for a month right now and then will pick it back up in January for my first big re-organization and edit.

Woodhouse Yarn & Cafe got a bit stalled after the first week. Mainly because I was so much more engaged in Missing Auggie. I also struggled with the narrative. I know the story I’m telling, but I found that I was writing more about life in a yarn shop and cafe. It was on the second to last day of the month, I had a breakthrough on the story and where I wanted it to go. I ended up writing down the outline that I wanted to write. I found a way to add in the stories about life in the shop.

What comes next for the two stories? Both are being put aside for December. I knew I would be doing this. Not only do I need a break from the stories, but I put off a lot of activity on other projects. This blog has gotten little attention because of November. Phi Alpha Pi is six months away from publication and it’s time to finish up production and start marketing it. The next time I will look at Missing Auggie will be in January. The next steps including filling in gaps, adding in content needed from the research, restructuring the story around themes and flashback needs, and making sure characters are sufficiently developed. It will be the first big edit development for three months and in April, for Camp NaNoWriMo, I will finish that round of edits to get it ready for readers and editors to break apart. Sex scenes will be shared and broken apart in December because I feel like they may need the most work.

Woodhouse Yarn and Cafe probably won’t be touched again until July, but is dependent on how quickly I move on Missing Auggie. The goal is to have a first full draft done by the end of July (for Camp NaNoWriMo) and be able to do the second draft next November. If I need to work on something in December, this is likely where I will work. I will also be doing a bunch of research about yarn shops and cafes in the next few months. I feel like I found the direct for this story and I don’t want to lose my momentum.

In the end it was a very productive November. I know I missed a lot, so what happened that I missed? Tell me in the comments!